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French consumer goods group Danone has agreed to acquire Huel, the UK producer of milkshake-style meal replacements, for about €1bn as it pushes deeper into the fast-growing market for fortified food and drinks.
The deal marks the latest effort by Danone, which produces Activia yoghurt and Evian water, to capitalise on the trend for so-called functional nutrition including supplements and drinks with added vitamins.
The two companies said on Monday that Huel’s “complete food” powders, snack bars and drinks meet growing demand from users of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and increasingly health-conscious consumers.
Huel, a portmanteau of human and fuel, started out in 2015 as a direct-to-consumer business, before striking agreements to sell its chocolate, banana and vanilla flavoured drinks in UK supermarkets as part of their lunch “meal deals”.
Popular with fitness-focused young professionals, the brand now sells across Europe and the US. Huel will report revenues of more than £250mn, compared with £214mn the year before, with an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin of about 10 per cent for 2025, a person close to the company said.
Huel’s products are made out of a blend of plant-based ingredients, fortified with vitamins and protein. The brand, which claims its products are nutritionally complete, has been criticised for producing ultra-processed products and marketing them as healthy alternatives. Huel has countered that not all UPFs are “inherently bad”.
James McMaster, Huel’s chief executive, said after the deal was announced on Monday that the brand’s primary appeal was its convenience, adding that young people today spend half as much time preparing food as the previous generation. McMaster added that low-calorie meals, which are “great with the GLP-1 crowd”, are now at the core of its product portfolio.
Danone is paying about €1bn for Huel, according to a person close to the deal. The UK company, which explored an initial public offering in 2021, was last valued at $560mn in a 2022 funding round.
Danone chief executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique said McMaster would remain as head of the Huel brand, running it as an autonomous business reporting into Danone’s head of Europe.
Saint-Affrique said Huel was a “great brand and smack on where the consumer is going”, adding that Huel would benefit from Danone’s research and development capabilities, and that Danone could learn from Huel’s expertise in digital and direct-to-consumer sales.
Huel’s largest shareholders are founder Julian Hearn, London-based venture capital firm Highland Europe and Morgan Stanley, which invested in November 2023 through its climate-focused private equity fund 1GT.
Other backers have included actor Idris Elba and his wife, presenter Jonathan Ross and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.